Friday, March 31. 2006

US Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials says they have reached an agreement with Japan on steps to reopen that country's beef market.

Imports of US beef were suspended in January after a shipment of veal was found to include bone material prohibited by the Japanese.

USDA acting under-secretary Chuck Lambert told a Senate panel his team has answered Tokyo's remaining questions about January's foul-up at a New York veal plant and set in motion steps to resume beef trade, starting with a plant safety checklist.

"Once that takes place, we will have people in the plants and do those verification audits, just as fast as we can," he said.

I haven't really seen anything else about this but if it's true it will be good news. How much it will help is a lot more questionable. All the flipping and flopping on US beef has made the Japanese consumer wary of US beef so it will take a long time to rebuild their trust in buying US beef. I think it will happen but we can't push it. Let it take it's time and the cattle industry will win back the market. Push to hard and we will lose it forever.

First, I will have to see it open again to worry about the rest though. Let's keep hoping.

Men talk of killing time, while time quietly kills them. Dion Boucicault

Random Photo from The Gallery

Flowers are starting to show their color. I guess that means spring is here. This comes up in a sheltered flower bed against a cement wall so it gets a lot more heat and warmth than the average spot around here. Still, spring has sprung. Taken 3/7/2006.